🎄December 2022

It's that time of year again, where we dust off our winter coats and huddle down for some festive family time. This year we have introduced some new features, have you seen them? Take a look and see what has changed. We have also turned the snow on again, so get coding!

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The Father Christmas worm (even hackers get into the holiday spirit!)

In December 1988, a worm named ‘The Father Christmas worm' was released into a NASA network. The aim of this worm was to send a Christmas greeting from "Father Christmas" from the affected system. The infection, originated in Switzerland, was thought to have spread to more than 6,000 computer nodes through the NASA network! 😱

When discovered, an email was sent out to warn centre managers that a worm had been released. One strategy to prevent infection was to create an empty "Hi.com" file which would stop the worm from being able to create a new version of the same file (this was its own strategy). This prevented mass infection and only 2% of infected devices launched the worm.

Although the Father Christmas worm caused little damage, it greatly increased the awareness of computer security protocol. This was proved in 1989, when a nearly identical worm was released into the Easynet intranet. The network manager was able to quickly prevent the spread of the worm because of the exposure of the Father Christmas worm from the previous month.

What a lot of worms! 🪱 You can read how to improve some of your own security measures on our Code for Life security worksheet here. Source.

Try your luck with a random snowy level!

Help Santa and Rudolph through a snowy level deliver to the presents to the houses.

Logic Puzzle

Test your powers of logic with this puzzle. Read the clues very carefully and then try to work out which child received which present by a process of elimination. Draw a table to help you work it out. You can find more puzzles on our Code for Life newsletter pages.

Oh no! Rudolph has eaten the labels from three children’s presents. Can you help Santa deliver the presents to the right children?

• The children are aged 12, 14 and 15.

• Gilly isn’t the youngest and she doesn’t live in Greene Road

• The child who received the telescope lives on Birch Grove and is younger than William.

• Timothy didn’t receive a bicycle.

• The oldest child received a remote-controlled car but doesn’t live on Freeman Avenue.

Help Santa find the present!

Santa has dropped some of his presents. Can you help him find his way? You can generate your own mazes here.

Under the Spotlight

Anna Len - Automation Development Tester

"Nowadays digital shopping is very popular and in the near future it could possibly dominate the market. I am just happy that I can be part of it."

Anna, an Automation Development Tester, joined the Ocado Technology team from one of Ocado's Customer Fulfilment Centres. "I've received an incredible opportunity to move to the Technology department. This was a great occasion for me to develop my passion as I am fascinated by the large amount of automation within the warehouse. I really enjoy what I am doing as I work with the robots. I get to test them every day to make sure they work perfectly when they are being used. Which helps me be able to learn something new everyday, meet new people from other parts of the world, and be a part of the great team which makes a difference in the technology and future."